air stone

[FishFanMan]

I've always hated air stones in my tanks, never had one. But I've always had oily film develop in my discus tank. After just one feeding fdbw there would be noticeable film that develops on top of the water. I have a plant only tank that stays film free with an air stone, so I'm trying it out with my discus tank. Those bubbles are so distracting, so unnatural looking. I hate it but let's see if it'll week the proteins suspended in the water column in stead of on the surface. I wish freshwater had a protein skimmer.

[Phillydubs]

Do you use a sponge filter at all...? You can hide an air strip and really keep it out of site if you try. I just added one to my tank and I feel like you. The last thing I wanted was more wires or tubing but I hid it behind my drift wood and it doesn't look half bad.

My thought is id rather some tunes and bubbles and nice fish then no tubes and bubbles and not as great fish

[bluelagoon]

You can always hook up a surface skimmer to your inlet of some filters.http://aquatic-art.blogspot.ca/2012/09/diy-powered-surface-skimmer.html

[gators111]

+1 on the skimmer

[FishFanMan]

I think fluval makes one of those, maybe I'll look into that. For now, the bubbles indeed keeps the surface film free. The air strip is close to the bottom of the tank atm, but I'm going to move it to just under the water surface to see if that placement works also. That'll minimize the stream of bubbles and cuts down on clutter in the tank.

[gators111]

What type of filtration are you using? Type of tank? Depth of tank? Amount of stocking? You may not need an airstone, if you put a skimmer intake on your filter. If you aim a spraybar on a canister at the surface, that could be enough. Depending on the surface area of your tank. As far as skimmers, fluval, tom's aquariums, and several others make them. A simple search on Amazon will bring them up. I've tried others, from glass ones, which were pretty, but were kinda of pain to adjust. And compact ones, that were just overly complicated. One thing to note though, any sand that gets in the threads will seize them up, and you can't adjust them anymore,making them useless.

[Jason.M]

Air stone doesn't need to be at the bottom of the tank. Your only trying to break the surface tension of the water, so you can leave the air stone raised and just under the surface outta sight.

[PaulPerger]

Air stone doesn't need to be at the bottom of the tank. Your only trying to break the surface tension of the water, so you can leave the air stone raised and just under the surface outta sight.

True, but you do need to lower it enough that the bubbles actually form and spread out a little bit, or you will hear it gurgling. About 3" should be deep enough.

[Neptune]

Ehiem makes a nice little self contained skimmer that works very well. Its small and needs very frequent cleanings though.

[FishFanMan]

I'm still running a 34 gallon tank with 5 discus in it. No plants and just a thin layer of pfs. Mostly 4 to 5 inches discus one is maybe 3 inche. I'm breaking all the rules but I can't do a 75 gallon atm. I'm very aware of water quality of the tank and will do a WC as needed. I know they won't grow much more but I accept that for now. Tank is 30 x 18 deep so they have decent space I believe.

Anyway, I have a fluval G6 canister, fluval C4 HOB and a HOB media reactor filled with Seachem Denitrate. 75% WC about every 3 to 4 days. If I go for a week, nitrate rises to about 20 ppm, so the reactor is doing a decent job.

So I moved the air strip to 2 inches below the surface and it still prevents the surface film from forming and I'm happy that it's not so noticeable now. The only issue I have now is the air pump noise. So I ordered 2 ultrasonic type air pumps to see if they are as quiet as they claim.

[nikond70s]

get a power head. i have a koralia nano in my tank pointed upward to create more current at the surface. works great

[FishFanMan]

I thought my c4 with over 200 g/h flow rate would be enough surface agitation. Don't want more equipment in this tank. A simple small air strip is doing a great job now. Just can't stand my air pumps, I have many so called quiet pumps but they're still way too loud. It's about 60dbs, ones I ordered are supposed to be less than 35dbs. We shall see.